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“There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.” ~ Simon Sinek

Ray Davis is the founder of The Affirmation Spot and an advocate for the potential of the human race. He’s the author of the breakthrough novel Anunnaki Awakening: Revelation – order your signed copy today at AATrilogy.com

“Your life is coming together in a complete and perfect way. You are doing all that is necessary, accepting all that is necessary, and releasing all that is necessary for your life to come forth and blossom. Give yourself credit for your accomplishments; cut yourself some slack for your mistakes. Know that all leads to your growth and healing. Be happy an enjoy life!”

When you accept that your life is coming together just as it should, you are free to challenge yourself to stretch beyond your limits.

On my journey this day, I follow in the footsteps of the immortals. The imprints they have left behind on the Earth are large and their strides are a stretch for me. Yet, if I dare not encounter them and measure myself by them, how shall I ever know the true immensity of my own being?

So, I step consciously into the light; walking the path they once walked. Leaving it, occasionally, and improvising. Adding to it qualities uniquely my own.

Breathing with the trees and conversing with the clouds, as once they did. Our collective wisdom grows until no distinction remains among the path, the immortals, and me.

Right now is the time to open yourself to the possibility of ignoring limitations and going beyond self-imposed boundaries. For the fear and anxiety you experience are nothing but the shadow of unfulfilled promise.

The world is full of opportunity and peril and a little of each in the other. It is ever forming and reforming; manifesting in precise accordance with our expectations. For your world lives in your mind long before it becomes visible; shaping itself to your perception of what is possible.

What is set in stone today is the dust in tomorrow’s breeze. Remember you are creating tomorrow’s results with every thought, word, and action today. Change is the catalyst for your betterment and your imagination its only limitation. Make the most of this blessing given you to personify the fruition of the promise that dwells within.

Each moment is a gift providing you with a fresh start on which to build a life filled with things more precious to you than your problems.

Follow your bliss! Experience your bliss! Become your bliss!

Ray

Ray Davis is the Founder of The Affirmation Spot and focuses on empowering minds to think positively, achieve goals, and live dreams. He is author of the ebook The Power to Be You and the forthcoming The Power to Be You 2: 1001 Power Thoughts for Daily Life.

From time to time, I like to shine a light on the amazing people out there who are really shining a light in the world with their personal example and their businesses. Today we are honored to feature an interview with Kelly A. Meerbott, Founder and Owner at You: Loud & Clear, Inc. Kelly. Before we begin the interview, here is more about Kelly in her own words.

I’m a Transformational Coach for leadership executives. This is my story, my mission, and my promise.

My limitations are my lever. I use my limits, fears and life experiences to my advantage — the good, the bad, and the cathartic. I’ve been recruited with luxurious offers by commercial media giants, and fired for standing my ground in the face of harassment. I’ve soothed furious clients and landed six-figure sales contracts — and I know what it feels like to doubt the talk you’re walking. I’ve lived off unemployment checks and unbridled willpower — and built a thriving business in the depths of the Recession.

I’ve invested thousands of dollars in personal + professional development, and firmly believe that high-integrity people attract high-octane opportunities.

I’m LOUD + CLEAR on my desires, abilities and intentions.

I’m here to help you do the same — your way, with my support.

I get around. In a past life (as a sought-after marketing consultant) I crafted strategies for Fortune 500s like Virgin America, McDonald’s, Walt Disney World Parks & Resorts, Sony Records and Anytime Fitness, as well as niche + boutique businesses like The Ritz-Carlton of Palm Beach, the British Tourism Authority, Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center and Universal Studios.
I bring my sales, marketing and business-building insights to every coaching session. It’s not my sole focus — but if it’s percolating in your world, we’ll unpack all the details.

And I get results.

One client admitted that “my balls were bigger than his” (I took it as a compliment.) Another called me “the best investment” he’d ever made (and he’d just purchased an airplane.) I work best with high-performing professionals who are already at the top of their game, and wondering, “what’s next?” (The answer may surprise you…)Question #1

TAS: Kelly, tells us about your vision for You: Loud & Clear. Who are your potential clients and what kinds of services do you provide to them?

Kelly: My vision is to help people live the life they’d love to live. Life is so short and it’s gone in the blink of an eye. We all should live life passionately, creatively, happily and authentically. Unfortunately, very few people live their lives that way. My service is to find out what is preventing them from living that life and work with them to get them there.

The services I provide are: listening and asking questions. The rest of the work is done by my client. When we begin our work together we get very clear on what their goals are and we create a customized plan for them to achieve the success in areas of their lives that they want to achieve.

Question #2

TAS: The work you’re doing is obviously important. You’ve committed your professional life to inspiring others to get better and reach their goals and dreams. Who has inspired you on your journey?

Kelly: People who have failed fantastically in their lives and still were not afraid to be themselves inspire me. People who are not afraid of being vulnerable and showing themselves to the world: warts and all. I used to strive for perfection. Now I joke with my clients that I’m a recovering perfectionist. I thought I had to hide who I was then I realized (with help from my coach, Charrise McCrorey) that my failures and mistakes in life were my best assets as a coach. They are the experiences that brought me to this point in my life. They are the best way I can be of service and assistance to my clients during their individual journeys.

Question #3

TAS: Do you have any mentors (personal or from afar) who inform your approach to this work?

Kelly: My husband: Brian who is active duty in the military and is truly the yin to my yang. I learn so much from him. He lives such an authentic life it takes my breath away.

My coach: Charrise McCrorey who inspires me daily. The most important thing she taught me is to be me. She will tell you that I did all the work but I contend that she was the catalyst.

Steve Chandler who’s work changed my life.

Byron Katie who taught me to question the validity of my thoughts.

Lee Cockerell who’s failures during his career made him an extraordinary executive.

My clients. They are my best coaches. I learn so much from them EVERY day.

My success team (the people who I went to the Sapien Harbor Coaching Academy with): Richard Blakeborough, Krystal Levi, Megan McCrorey, Linda Wilson, Valerie St. Germain, Melissa Flagler each one is a gift to the world. I consistently stand in awe and am filled with gratitude because they are in my life.

Question #4

TAS: You say on your website that “one powerful conversation can change your life.” That sounds like a big promise. How do you deliver on that promise?

Kelly: With the right person, at the right time, with the necessary amount of openness and receptive spirit, one conversation has the potential to change a life. The prerequisite is feeling that the other person in the conversation is truly and absolutely listening to you without pronouncing judgments or reaching conclusions based on inadequate or incorrect data. You must feel as though anything you say is good and right – from there, you are liberated to become exactly who and what you are.

Question #5

TAS: We all know there a lot of professional coaches out there, what sets Kelly Meerbott and You: Loud & Clear apart from the crowded coaching field?

Kelly: I can only speak for my methodologies and outcomes that are all predicated on one simple premise: I am listening fully and absolutely to who you are and what you seek to deposit in the universe. With that as the fundamental truth of our interaction, you are now able to develop whatever it is you seek to have happen to your life and I am your coach and your cheering section on that journey. Everything I coach my clients on: income, communication, executive leadership, etc. Are based on road-tested disciplines that have worked in my life and in my clients lives.

Question #6

TAS: We are certainly living in transformational times. Many people are trying to find the key to unlock that potential within them and transform their lives. You call yourself a transformational coach. What does transformation mean to you? Can you give us an example (anonymous, of course) of a client you have helped transform his or her life or career?

Kelly: One of our realities in twenty-first century technology is that change is constant. If we are unable to respond to change in a positive and affirmative manner, we are destined to be left in the past, both technologically and professionally. When I speak of transformation, I am embracing change as a necessary factor in our survival, both individually and as a society. We must transform ourselves from whatever it is that restrains or inhibits our growth; from there we must grow into what fulfills and completes us, both in terms of individual spirituality and our professional behavior.

I have been quite gratified by the reactions of a number of clients who have been forthcoming about the coaching they have received from me. The most significant of these is a female client in this area who has said the following: “Kelly, I have read so many books and attended so many seminars but they all leave me with the same feeling. If you don’t fit into one of their cookie-cutter paradigms, you are not right. You are the first and only coach who has encouraged me to identify who I am and fight for the right to be that person. I will forever be grateful to you for that.”

Question #7

TAS: There may be some people reading this who know they would benefit from a coach, but are concerned about the cost. They may see it as a luxury item at this point in their businesses or careers. What would you say to these people?

Kelly: My first response is likely to be along the lines of receiving exactly what you pay for in terms of coaching and self-actualization. But I understand difficult economic conditions and I am sensitive to the constraints that they impose. All I can say with certainty is that while self-development is an ongoing, critically important process, the coaching that I provide is an investment that will justify itself throughout life. We invest in stocks, real estate, education and other entities that have unpredictable by-products. If you invest in yourself, you win. My efforts are dedicated toward making this a realistic, vitally important investment in yourself that will have resounding and lasting consequences.

I’m also very big on delivering value. I ask the question: what would you have to see to know that you are getting value from our coaching relationship. My clients and I create very clear agreements that allow us to track their return on investment.

Conclusion

TAS: Kelly, thank you so much for your insightful answers and for what you do to help people reach their goals and dreams. How can an interested TAS reader contact you to learn more?

Ray Davis is the Founder of The Affirmation Spot and focuses on empowering minds to think positively, achieve goals, and live dreams. He is author of the ebook The Power to Be You and the forthcoming The Power to Be You 2: 1001 Power Thoughts for Daily Life.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

In life, we may not all be leaders in business or social settings. However, there is one place we should always lead – our lives. We have to be willing to step up and take what Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield has described as “The One Seat”.

That’s the place where we are sovereign in our life; making our own decisions and taking responsibility for our outcomes. Today I am posting affirmations and original quotes to awaken the leader within.

There is a great leader within me. Today I am embodying leadership in all I say and do!

Self-Leadership is the best leadership. Today I boldly take the lead in my life!

Today my inner leader emerges in my life.

My company needs leaders and I am ready, willing, and able to step up!

Our planet needs leaders and I am ready, willing, and able to step up!

I am a great leader! I am a great leader! I am a great leader and I get better and better each and every day!

Whenver I take the lead amazing things happen!

The world in which we follow a leader and hope for the best must be replaced by a world where we lead ourselves.

I am a leader not a follower. Today I AM the leader I always knew I could be!

Love will become the answer when we refuse to allow leaders lead through fear. We must recognize fear-based leadership and reject it.

Every leader was once a follower or a wannabe who showed up and stepped up.

If my vision of the world is to succeed, I must lead. Today I am the leader I always knew I could be!

Leadership is sometimes just a matter of being the one to fill the idea vacuum.

Today I am the leader I came here to be!

A great leader lives within me. Today that leader steps up and takes charge!

I am a decisive leader. I weigh all available information and make the call without regrets.

I lead through my thoughts! I lead through my words! I lead through my actions!

I am a business visionary. I am always setting the trends that others follow in my niche!

Today I stand up, Today I stand out, Today I stand strong!

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert’s advice.

When fear is the leader I refuse to follow. Love is my leader!

A leader may inspire, but I believe in me. I never substitute belief in myself for belief in any leader.

I know when to learn, when to listen, and when to lead. I am a great leader!

Follow your bliss! Experience your bliss! Become your bliss!

Ray

Ray Davis is the Founder of The Affirmation Spot and focuses on empowering minds to think positively, achieve goals, and live dreams.He’s spent the past 21 years in sales and sales training for major companies.

When discussing a word it always helps to understand its origin. The word doubt comes from the Old French douter from the Latin dubitare – which means “to hesitate, waiver”. A concept of fear was attached to the word’s meaning in its Old French incarnation and that meaning made its way into the English definition. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

A modern definition is: “to be uncertain, consider questionable or unlikely, hesitate to believe, to distrust, to fear or be apprehensive about.”

The fact is that we live in a world full of uncertainty. Some doubt is normal and natural. The trouble comes when doubt paralyzes; when you take up residence in a constant state of doubt. When that happens you find it hard to move on to acceptance or trust.

Doubt has long been recognized as an obstacle to growth or progress. Buddha named doubt one of the Five Hindrances that prevent enlightenment. Modern psychotherapy has developed cognitive and behavioral approaches to dealing with doubt. Many motivational speakers and teachers encourage us to find ways to overcome doubt.

Doubt has also occasionally been a stepping stone to deeper understanding such as in the case of the Christian Apostle Thomas. He required rational proof of Jesus’ post-Crucifixion appearances and even had to see the holes in Jesus’ hands to believe. Some rationalists extol doubt as a necessary part of weighing evidence and coming to a rational conclusion based upon it.

So, given these differing views of doubt, how can you come to terms with it and use it? I’m not sure it’s healthy or productive to try to remove doubt from your life. It is a natural part of being human. What you can do is make peace with it and use to your advantage.

Doubt is not the challenge. The challenge is what you choose to focus your doubt on. The tendency is to doubt the good things about yourself or your circumstances and believe the “realistic” or negative aspects. Turn that on its head by using “the power of doubt” to eat away at your obstacles and challenges rather than your dreams and your belief.

Why fight this natural human tendency when by directing it appropriately you can use it as a tool to improve your circumstances? So become a doubter of every negative, disempowering thought you think and watch your positives grow.

“Leaders breathe life into the hopes and dreams of others and enable them to see the exciting possibilities that the future holds. Leaders forge a unity of purpose by showing constituents how the dream is for the common good. Leaders stir the fire of passion in others by expressing enthusiasm for the compelling vision of their group. Leaders communicate passion through vivid language and and expressive style.”

Like previous editions, the 4th edition of The Leadership Challenge is chalk-full of inspirational language and practical tools to develop your leadership skills. The two leadership experts share their the latest research and examples in a 25-year search to define the characteristics that transform ordinary people into extraordinary leaders.

The validity of their research has been tested across time and culture. It turns out that the factors that create a great leader are pretty universal, and thankfully, a learnable skill.

Their research-tested model (they have interviewed nearly 75,000 people over the years) continues to center on “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”:

Model the Way

Inspire a Shared Vision

Challenge the Process

Enable Others to Act

Encourage the Heart

The Five Practices are comprised of the “Ten Commitments of Leadership”:

Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared ideals.

Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities.

Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.

Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.

Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships.